Thoughts off the brain

Fitting in to the new school was somewhat the hardest thing I had to do in my life till then three years ago when I first joined PS. You may have heard the usual new-girl-trying-to-fit-in stories and probably thought ‘What a cliché!’ Because I did. But you know when I was actually made to fit in God was I wrong! It's as hard as anything else, if not harder, on earth. A series of wrong-doings some hatred gaining and then finally I settled down to this new school near the end of my ninth grade. A long time you may say but I deserved so much time. I spent the time observing people and knowing how they were and stuff. No wonder I speak philosophies, eh? You got that right!

Now after my tenth grade (and, if I may add, a totally unexpected but seriously gratifying results in the board exam)I am meeting old pals from my old school after all this time. Among the few that I could contact- via the net (thank you technology now I can talk to old pals without fighting for their phone numbers) and by chance (calling another friend when she is with our mutual friend kind of stuff) - I got to know so many gossips about my old school (super time consuming and ultimate entertainment) and you know the usual ‘how are you doing?’ and the likes and their comments about me.

Everything went on well until she said ‘Your voice is a lot different now!’ Really I didn’t expect that statement from her. Well what is wrong you may ask. Feast on this: all old pals, I repeat all old pals, say the same thing to you. The first time you can say ‘oh really? I never thought so!’ what about the second? Or every single time you talk to someone after a long time? Every single person says the same thing. After a point it bores you and after yet another point it annoys you and then one fine day it becomes the hardest thing you ever had to do, at least sort of.

Actually this is harder. Talking to guy friends after a long time. Especially talking to them in the tenth grade after last talking to them when in seventh grade. Their voices are deeper than you last remember them and boy did that scare me! A guy friend was sweet enough to get my phone number from our mutual friend and called me in the morning of my birthday. And that scared the heck out of me! He called right after waking up (big mistake) and his already coarse voice sounded to me like a drunken man who just kidnapped me threatening me. Though my birthday wasn’t ruined because of that call it did scare me and that counts! That wasn’t it. Other guy friends I talked to over the phone scared me equally well, if not more. Sometimes their act of sweetness turns out to be an act of scariness to me.

But one thing is for sure. Just the mention of one of their names gives me a trip down the memory lane where I experienced some of the sweetest things of my life. Like every friend I meet in orkut, every friend I talk to over the phone, every friend who still messages me, every friend I exchange emails with just give me thoughts of old school and the good old times. I wish I were there right now but I wouldn’t trade the world for the rich experiences I learned here in PS. Two wonderful phases of my life spent in two wonderful places in the world. Each left in me a mark that is irreplaceable. I wouldn’t change anything in my life if I were given a chance. My life is not perfect but it is as close to perfect as it can be and this is all I want. A perfect life will mean there won’t be these interesting little downs that make the ups seem so beautiful!
Until next time,
Yours,
Arthi Appathurai.

Unclean roads?Think again...

Well how many times have you heard people blame the government for not having cleaner roads? How many times have you blamed the government? Obviously many. But think we are also responsible for the littering. In fact, we litter and expect the government to clean it up. Remember there are people who are paid to clean the roads every day. They are dutiful, the clean the litter and their job is done. It is the course of the day that makes it look so unclean. And I don’t see why the government has to be blamed for this. Seriously you guys. Think about this we go on about other places having much cleaner roads and, not surprisingly, throw litter on the street because we are impatient to wait for the next bin to come by. Now tell me who do you blame for this?

The worst part is when a person takes the initiative. It's the worst experience if you are a beginner. But once you get used to it you feel better. The first time I started using the bin I was mocked at, blamed for “destroying the very culture of the country” and what not. It did bother me and a lot at that. But now, almost 5 years of experience, I feel better when people do that. My persistence actually made my friends take advantage of it. They dumped their garbage unto me because I pleaded them to use the bin. Lazy bums! But yeah now I feel its better, at least by doing that the garbage goes in the bin. I did do the mistake of telling it out once to get mocked at again! Indians! I don’t blame them. I don’t know who to blame. Maybe I do know I just don’t want to blame someone else for our faults!

In these 5 years the number of persons I was able to transform into an environment aware useful citizen is, not a bit shockingly, zero! That is us, Indians! We want others to do our job. And if we don’t find anyone we search for someone to blame. We don’t do our job till the very end, after testing the patience of everyone else! And if we find someone to blame we cling on to them till the end of time! For this road-unclean business the “someone else to blame” people are the government and the poor defenseless people who clean the streets. It is by all means easier to say “the government does nothing to clean the roads” or “these people who clean the roads are never doing it nice” instead of keeping that chocolate wrapper or whatever waste you have till the next bin shows up, right?

This actually happened to me. I and someone else were travelling in an auto. I wanted to take out water to drink so I gave responsibility of holding this chocolate wrapper to the other person (tough job huh?) and after I take the water out and have a drink and ask back the wrapper, boom!, its gone! The person dropped it out of the door! The best part is yet to come. There was a bin so near to the auto even I wouldn’t have missed a basket into it just a minute later!

Yeah the people who clean roads are paid. Probably they are underpaid probably they are not. But a little bit of appreciation of their work won’t hurt would it? I don’t mean go to every single person who cleans the road and appreciate just use the bin everywhere you go. They will think “look at these people! They didn’t litter the place I swept yesterday! That actually feels nice!” and you probably would have contributed in making their day. If you think they are paid why do they need appreciation for? Try this, you do all your homework and you are paid for it but you aren’t given any raise or promotion in your office. Or try this at school you get the class first after all the hard work you put in but no one says “good job!” or “nice” or something like that; you don’t have anyone to share the happiness with. Bad isn’t it? So will it be for the sweepers! Just think for a moment before you dispose of your garbage the next time if not for the environment, and later you own goodness, use the bin for at least the moral reason of it. I know this won’t make any change in most of you. But just try for once. It really feels nice!

Until next time,

Yours,

Arthi Appathurai.

Ten tried and tested ways to spend an otherwise boring summer interestingly*

Feels good to write after a sabbatical you know. You should try that. Maybe not now but sometime. It's a lot fun than, I don’t know, watching the worst movies ever made in the history of movies! Its summer again, the time of extreme heat, a lot less activities and a heck lot more time than ever! Good for you guys I’ve been thinking what to do in this heck lot of a time. These are ten best ways I decided would work for me. When it works for me you might as well try it out, after all you have all the time on earth to kill, bury and cut tall grass grown all over the place! And, by the way, the “*” sign you saw in the title means these may not work for you so don’t blame me if you are still bored! And, also, I have grown a special liking to these countdown stuff don’t ask me why ‘cause I have no idea why!

Thing to do in summer #10:

Sit back and relax in your bed. More sleep means less time awake. The lesser you are awake the lesser you need to worry about spending time.

Thing to do in summer #9:

Fight for the control of remote with whoever you may have competition with. That’ll take up at least half the day or something and the rest enjoy your victory with TV. Watch it even if it's boring. And if you lose, hard luck! Watch what the other person is watching.

Thing to do this summer #8:

Clean your table. Yes I said that! It takes up the whole day! I know so because I tried it. It really works. Yeah it's boring. But hey! You burn time!

Thing to do this summer #7:

Go to the nearest DvD rental store and get a good load of movies of your favorite star or your favorite movies. Get home take a cup of water and watch the movies!

Thing to do this summer #6:

Call up people you didn’t talk to in a long time. This conversation might get boring but it sure helps to kill time! And it also comes with an advantage; no one will complain that you never called them in a long time!

Thing to do this summer #5:

Go to that big cupboard that has those books you never read in all these years. They might actually turn out to be very interesting.

Thing to do this summer #4:

If you want to get shocked get ready to be now. Go to a fitness centre and work out there for about an hour. When you get back home you’ll be way too tired to do anything and you’ll want to just lay down and stare at the ceiling. Works well for me!

Thing to do this summer #3:

Call up all your friends and talk with them for as long as they say they got to go or as long as you get an idea of something great to do. There’ll always be at least one soul who is as bored as you are!

Thing to do this summer #2:

Get the computers started and surf the net for worthless stuff like some random movie read its plot go read about the actors who played a role in it. Go to one of their random movies and so on… works well!

Thing to do this summer #1:

I came up with writing this blog. You come up with something else. Do the thinking for goodness’s sake! Thinking really helps keep your mind active! So now go on and think!

Until next time,

Yours,

Arthi Appathurai.